Overview

• Official tallies now vary, with IDSP listing 67 cases and 18 deaths while the health minister later cited 69 cases and 19 deaths, reflecting ongoing revisions.
• A 17-year-old who bathed at the Akkulam Tourist Village pool tested positive, prompting an immediate shutdown of the facility and collection of water samples.
• The Health Department is pursuing a case‑control investigation with ICMR‑NIE and proposing genomic sequencing with IISc, with additional collaborations planned for environmental assessments.
• The minister said 2025 infections appear as isolated cases rather than a single‑source cluster, contrasting with a cluster linked to a common water source in 2024.
• Clinicians report most infections follow exposure to unchlorinated freshwater or occur in immunocompromised patients, though a few recent cases lack clear exposure histories, reinforcing calls for chlorination and nasal‑exposure precautions.